Running a Best Of episode combined with NXT Year End Awards, this week’s taped episode only did 548,000 viewers, down 283,000 viewers from last week’s Christmas Day episode which ran unopposed. NXT did a 0.15 rating in the 18-49 demographic, placing it in #66 in the top 50 cable chart. The difference between the two shows was of 419,000 viewers, expected since NXT had replays of best matches rather than a first-run show. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Dynamite rating for 01/01/2020
The much-hyped Homecoming edition of Dynamite on New Year’s Day pulled in 967,000 viewers, an increase of 284,000 viewers from the December 18 episode. The show did a 0.36 rating in the 18-49 demographic which placed AEW in #13 in the top 50 cable chart. AEW did not run a show on Christmas Day. With NXT running a Best Of episode, AEW easily won the ratings war this week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
WWE Backstage rating for 12/31/2019
The New Year’s Eve episode of WWE Backstage did just 97,000 viewers. Considering it started at 11PM ET, it’s actually amazing that so many still tuned in till the stroke of Midnight. It was down 56,000 viewers from the previous week. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
Killer Kross applies to trademark his wrestling name
Killer Kross, the former Impact Wrestling star who was recently given his release from the company, applied to trademark his wrestling name with the United States Patent and Trademark Office on December 24, 2019.
Kross, real name Robert Kesar, filed for the trademark himself a week after he got free from Impact Wrestling, noting that the first use of his name was on May 13, 2014. The word mark was filed under entertainment services, namely wrestling exhibits and performances by a professional wrestler and entertainer.
The free agent has not signed with any promotion yet although many expect him to join his girlfriend Scarlett Bordeaux at the WWE Performance Center and NXT. Kross had been in hot water with Impact Wrestling ever since the Slammiversary pay-per-view in July where he refused to blade in his first blood match against Eddie Edwards due to Impact failing to provide a doctor, ambulance, and testing at the show. Impact ended up punishing him for it for five months and was left out of all television tapings that came after that show. He asked for his release in May of this year, something which obviously did not help matters either.
Strowman/Lashley arm wrestling match tops WWE’s most-watched videos list on YouTube in 2019
To say that WWE has a strong presence on YouTube is quite an understatement. With 52.7 million subscribers, the WWE channel on YouTube is one of the most popular on the website. Their top 10 videos of 2019 amounted to over 172 million views together and topping the list was an unlikely video.
Coming in at #1 was the Braun Strowman vs Bobby Lashley arm wrestling match from the June 3 Raw episode. That was the most-watched WWE video on YouTube for the last year with a whopping 38.10 million views. It was so popular that the #2 video did half of those views so there’s a massive gap between the top two spots.
The second most-watched video was The Shield saying goodbye to Dean Ambrose after the April 8 episode of Raw went off the air. That video did 19.09 million views. It’s the one of two Shield videos in the top 10 list.
Braun Strowman found himself twice in the top three with him pushing over Mr. McMahon’s limousine on the January 14 episode of Raw getting 19.03 million views, good for the #3 spot.
#4 is another Shield video with Roman Reigns and Seth Rollins saving Dean Ambrose from 4-on-1 beatdown from the February 25 episode of Raw. That video has a total of 17.24 million views.
Brock Lesnar brutally attacking Rey Mysterio and his son came from the September 30 Raw came in at #5 with 15.44 million views.
The only video that involved the women came in #6 with the crazy, wild brawl from the April 1 Raw involving Ronda Rousey, Becky Lynch and Charlotte Flair all getting arrested. That video did 14.73 million views.
Despite limited appearances, The Undertaker got on the list too when he came to the aid of Roman Reigns on the June 24 episode of Raw. That was good for #7 with 13.97 million views.
Roman Reigns is in another top 10 video and this time it’s from the June 17 Raw when he storms into Shane McMahon’s VIP room and attacks him. That came in #8 with a total of 12.81 million views.
Newcomer Cain Velasquez left his mark in the #9 spot and his debut on the October 4 episode of Smackdown on FOX did 11.42 million views.
And wrapping up the top 10 list is the face-to-face encounter between Goldberg and The Undertaker from the June 4 episode of Smackdown Live with 9.79 million views.
A look at the 2019 Monday Night Raw viewership numbers
Monday Night Raw averaged 2,417,000 viewers over 52 weeks in 2019, quite a drop from the 2,823,000 viewers it averaged in 2018. It was a bigger drop than what the show had between 2017 and 2018 as Raw experienced some record lows over the past year.
While last year Raw did over four million viewers on average once, this year they didn’t come even close as Raw only crossed the three million average mark once. In total only five episodes had an hour cross the three million, with the July 22 episode being the only show that all three hours did over three million each.
The most-watched Raw was in fact the July 22 episode with an average of 3,093,000 viewers. The Raw after WrestleMania was second with 2,923,000 average and the February 25 Raw with 2,922,000 average. The first hour of the April 8 post-Mania episode was the most watched hour of the year with 3,182,000 viewers tuning in.
But the good news, if you want to call it that, stops there. Raw had hit some pretty bad lows in 2019, including the December 23 episode which did an average of just 1,835,000 viewers. That was the only episode that didn’t surpass the two million viewer average mark in 2019. The December 16 and November 11 shows did 2,053,000 and 2,508,000 viewers respectively to round up the least-watched Raws of 2019.
When you look at the numbers and the chart, there’s no “winning” for Raw in 2019 as ratings continue to sink and viewers continue to tune out. Starting in the first week of October, Raw is also no longer the most-watched WWE show as it was surpassed every week by Smackdown since moving to FOX.
And the 2019 NXT Year End Awards winners are…
NXT held its Year End awards last night with an in-studio show rather than a live broadcast from Full Sail University. Cathy Kelley anchored the broadcast and was aided by Pat McAfee and Sam Roberts.
The awards were as follows:
The Undisputed Era (O’Reilly and Fish) won the NXT Tag Team of the Year. Nominees in this category included Viking Raiders, Mark Andres and Flash Morgan Webster, Grizzled Young Veterans, and The Street Profits.
Adam Cole won the NXT Male Competitor of the Year. Other nominees included Johnny Gargano, Velveteen Dream, Walter, Tyler Bate and Tommaso Ciampa.
Shayna Baszler won the NXT Female Competitor of the Year. Nominees included Rhea Ripley, Kay Lee Ray, Io Shirai, Toni Storm, and Bianca Belair.
The NXT Rivalry of the Year went to Adam Cole vs Johnny Gargano. There were no other nominees announced. This is Gargano’s second year winning the award after he won it with Tommaso Ciampa.
Dakota Kai won the NXT Future Star of the Year. Nominees were Ilja Dragunov, Isaiah “Swerve” Scott, Bronson Reed, Tegan Nox, Kushida, Xia Li, Taynara, and Cameron Grimes.
NXT Takeover of the Year went to the most recent one, Takeover: WarGames. This was the show during the Survivor Series weekend which included two awesome WarGames matches and the first-ever female one.
The NXT Breakout Star of the Year went to Keith Lee. Nominees included Angel Garza, Joe Coffey, Piper Niven, Dominik Dijakovic, Damian Priest, Matt Riddle, Rhea Ripley, and Candice LaRae.
The NXT Match of the Year went to Cole vs Gargano in a two-out-of-three falls match at NXT Takeover: New York. This was the match where Gargano won the NXT title during WrestleMania weekend.
Cole vs. Gargano in a two-out-of-three falls match won NXT Match of the Year. The match where Gargano won the NXT Championship took place at TakeOver: New York on April 5th from the Barclays Center in Brooklyn during WrestleMania weekend.
The NXT Overall Competitor of the Year was a battle between the NXT champion Adam Cole and former NXT Women’s champion Shayna Baszler. Adam Cole won the much-deserved award as he had a fantastic year, probably the best year out of anyone even on the main roster.
Participants of the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic announced
A combination of NXT and NXT UK tag teams will be part of the Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic tournament this year. The participants and bracket were revealed last night on the first episode of NXT of 2020.
On the left bracket there is Imperium (Marcel Barthel and Fabian Aichner) taking on The Forgotten Sons and then Matt Riddle and Pete Dunne versus Mark Andrews and Flash Morgan Webster.
The right bracket has Grizzled Young Veterans facing Kushida and a mystery tag team partner and Gallus (Mark Coffey and Wolfgang) versus The Undisputed Era (Bobby Fish and Kyle O’Reilly).
No start date has been announced although a finale at the upcoming NXT Takeover: Portland would make the most sense. This will be the fifth Dusty Classic and Cody revealed in December that he gave WWE permission to use the name of his father for another edition of the tournament.
MJF names his stipulations before he wrestles Cody at Revolution
MJF has accepted to wrestle Cody Rhodes at the upcoming Revolution pay-per-view next month as long as Cody meets three stipulations.
MJF revealed these stipulations last night on Dynamite with the first stipulation being that if Cody touches him before the pay-per-view, the match is called off. The second stipulation is that Cody has to beat Wardlow in a steel cage match. If he doesn’t succeed, the match is off. And the third and final stipulation – and the most humiliating one – is that MJF has to whip Cody ten times live on TNT while he bends over in the middle of the ring.
The feud between the two had been building for quite a few months and finally MJF turned heel on Cody at the Full Gear pay-per-view.
Who will walk away with the NXT Year End awards tonight?
Tonight’s NXT on USA Network will be a Best Of 2019 episode with the addition of the Year End awards handed out.
The award winners set to be revealed as voted by fans include Overall Competitor of the Year, Male Competitor of the Year, Female Competitor of the Year, Tag Team of the Year, Breakout Star of the Year, Future Star of the Year, Match of the Year, Rivalry of the Year, and TakeOver of the Year.
Apart from that, the teams entering in the 2020 Dusty Rhodes Tag Team Classic will be revealed.
NXT returns live next week on USA Network from Full Sail University in Winter Park, Florida.
Dynamite returns on TNT with Homecoming special tonight
AEW returns on TNT tonight after one week absence with a loaded show. Losing in both viewership and 18-49 demo last time around and with a taped Best Of episode of NXT set to air tonight on USA, Dynamite is looking to rebound with the Homecoming special from Jacksonville, Florida.
Announced so far are five matches including Cody vs Darby Allin, Kenny Omega and The Young Bucks vs The Lucha Bros and Neville, Riho defending the AEW Women’s title against Nyla Rose, Britt Baker, and Hikaru Shida in a four-way match, Jon Moxley vs Trent, and Sammy Guevara vs Dustin Rhodes.
Apart from these matches, Moxley is also set to either accept or deny the Inner Circle’s offer to join them, MJF to discuss his next move with Cody, and Taz will be appearing on the show doing commentary.
Tickets for tonight’s show at the Daily’s Place are still available through Ticketmaster.com.
Lana and Lashley’s wedding angle a big hit on YouTube
The Lana and Lashley wedding segment might have its fair share of critics but it seems like it is a big hit on YouTube.
Three videos associated with the angle which main evented Raw this past Monday have done millions of views each on the popular video sharing website which suggests that fans at least were curious to see what happened. Pro wrestling weddings always have a twist and never go according to plans and typically do well in terms of viewership due to the surprise factor.
The highlights video of what went down on Monday has over 3.2 million views on the official WWE YouTube page while the video of Lana continuing to throw a fit after the show went off the air has 2.3 million views and counting. The WWE on FOX YouTube page also uploaded a five minute video of the wedding angle and that already has 3.8 million views and growing.
All three videos were uploaded on December 30.
24/7 title changes hands during the FOX New Year’s Eve broadcast
The 24/7 title kept changing hands even late at night on New Year’s Eve yesterday with the gold swapping hands a couple of times throughout the FOX New Year’s Eve broadcast.
It was Mojo Rawley who won the title first after knocking out R-Truth while he was being interviewed on camera by Maria Menounos. Menounos acted as the referee and hit the three count on Truth, awarding the title to Rawley.
But Mojo’s reign was pretty short as on his way out, he asked Elias for directions on how to get out of there. Mojo insulted Elias’ performance from earlier in the night and Elias was offended and smashed the guitar over Mojo. Truth was there once again – as was Menounos with her referee shirt – and counted to three as Truth regained the title.
Charlotte Flair and Andrade engaged
There’s another power couple in the making in the WWE as Andrade and Charlotte announced their engagement on Twitter.
It was Charlotte who posted a photo of the two hugging each other with the words “Si” and then the United States champion posted a status of his own writing, “She said siiiiiiiiiiiiii!!!”
This will be the third wedding for Charlotte who was previously married to Riki Johnson from 2010 to 2013. She talked about her marriage in the Second Nature book, revealing she left her husband after multiple domestic violence assaults. Later in 2013, she married Thomas Latimer, the wrestler better known under the name of Bram. The marriage lasted until 2015.
Andrade has not been married before and the two have been dating since late 2018.
Raw rating for 12/30/2019
Monday Night Raw drew 2,435,000 viewers this week, up 604,000 viewers from last week’s record-low broadcast. This was the most-watched Raw since the September 30 episode.
Hour one started with 2,525,000 viewers, then went down to 2,464,000 viewers for the second hour, and 2,328,000 viewers for the third and final hour.
Raw was #4, #5, and #6 in the top 50 cable chart among the 18-49 demographic and #7 in overall viewership for the night on cable. (Ratings credit: Showbuzzdaily.com)
A look at the 2019 NXT viewership numbers
Moving live to USA Network on September 18, NXT averaged a total of 829,400 over the past three-and-a-half months, often finding itself behind Dynamite in terms of viewership and the 18-49 demographic.
NXT had a two-week head start over Dynamite, with the first two episodes pulling in 1,179,000 and 1,006,000 viewers respectively for the most-watched shows. The November 20 episode which featured a bunch of Raw and Smackdown Superstars advancing the Survivor Series angle did 963,000 viewers.
The least-watched show came on October 30 with just 580,000 viewers tuning in, with the October 23 episode and and October 16 show doing bad as well with 698,000 and 712,000 viewers respectively.
NXT only won three out of the 12 head-to-head weeks in terms of viewership against AEW and only won once in the 18-49 demographic. It drew once, on December 11, with both NXT and AEW getting 778,000 viewers.
WWE programming officially kicks off on BT Sport in the United Kingdom
The era of WWE television on BT Sport kicks off today in the United Kingdom as BT Sport officially takes over all WWE programming from Sky Sports. This is the first time in over three decades that WWE will have no programming on Sky in the UK.
WWE shows will help kick off 2020 on BT Sport with Raw highlights at 8AM, a new original series No Filter at 9AM, WWE 24: Becky Lynch at 9:30AM, WWE 24: Kofi Kingston at 10:30AM, WrestleMania Legendary Moments at 11:30AM, and another repeat of No Filter at 12:30PM. No Filter will take a unique behind-the-scenes look at the November 2019 WWE live event tour of the UK. NXT will then air live at 1AM.
Fans who sign up to select BT Superfast Fibre and BT Sport bundles between Friday, January 10 and Monday, January 27 will also receive a replica WWE title worth 180GBP.
As well as airing all Raw, Smackdown and NXT shows live, BT Sport will also show primetime same day repeats. In addition, customers can catch up on all the overnight action whenever and wherever they like via the enhanced video player on the BT Sport app on mobile and BTSport.com.
Simon Green, head of BT Sport said, “We are looking forward to welcoming WWE to its new home, BT Sport. WWE is something that many of us have grown up with and we look forward to bringing the best of BT Sport to WWE, offering UK fans more access and more content than ever before.”
Reigns vs Ziggler to be the last WWE match of 2019 tonight on the FOX New Year’s Eve special
Before the clock strikes Midnight, there will be one more WWE match televised on FOX as Roman Reigns will take on Dolph Ziggler during the FOX New Year’s Eve broadcast live from Times Square hosted by Steve Harvey.
The broadcast, which kicks off at 8PM ET, will feature performances by LL Cool J, The Chainsmokers, The Lumineers, Tyga, Backstreet Boys, and more. It’s co-hosted by WWE super fans Maria Menounos and Rob Gronkowski. Other WWE Superstars are expected to be in attendance as well.
Logistics for this match have been kept under wraps and it’s still not clear if there will be a ring in the middle of Times Square or if the match will take place somewhere else.
WWE’s involvement in this New Year’s Eve activity is thanks to the broadcast partnership with FOX.
Lashley reveals the hate and death threats he received for the Lana angle
Hours before Monday Night Raw went on the air, Sports Illustrated published an interview with Bobby Lashley to discuss the wedding that headlined the broadcast yesterday.
Speaking with SI, Lashley revealed how much hate he received throughout the angle mainly because it was a black male in a relationship with a white female.
“I’ve experienced a tremendous amount of hate. We as a society come out and we’re anti-bullying, anti-hate, anti-this, anti-that, but I think we actually pick and choose who we hate and bully,” the former Impact and ECW champion said.
Elaborating on the negative feedback and not because it was a bad storyline, Lashley said that he was called the n-word multiple times and received death threats as well. “I’m going to kill you, we’re going to get you when you come down south,” one message read. “I just kind of sit back and laugh about it. I’ve even experienced some people that are in the business of wrestling — tweeting things and posting pictures, and I just sit back and laugh,” Lashley explained.
Lashley admitted that if he didn’t have thick skin, some of the things he had to experience lately would have been very difficult to take in.
He added that it doesn’t matter how you look, people will still find a way to bully you. “A lot of times we feel that the person being hated on or being bullied should be a frail person. But now you take somebody like myself and Lana, who is a gorgeous woman, and we don’t look like the typical people that are bullied.”
In the interview, Lashley also talked about his return, working with Lio Rush, being a Paul Heyman guy, and more. The full interview can be read at SI.COM.
A look at the 2019 Dynamite viewership numbers
Dynamite had a solid fourth quarter in 2019 and with just 12 weekly shows since its existence, the new promotion quickly cemented itself as the king of the Wednesday night war.
Dynamite on TNT averaged 911,000 viewers over the course of 12 weeks, starting with a very good 1,409,000 viewership on October 2. But the good news didn’t last very long, with only the first three shows surpassing the 1 million viewer mark.
By the time the last show of 2019 came on December 18, the show lost over 50% of its viewership from week one. The October 9 and 16 episodes, which are week two and three, did the most viewership behind the premiere on October 2, with 1,140,000 viewers and 1,014,000 viewers respectively.
The least-watched broadcast was on November 27 with 663,000 viewers while the December 18 and October 30 episodes round up the bottom three with 683,000 and 759,000 viewers respectively.
Dynamite won eight out of the 12 weeks when it comes to viewership numbers against NXT and won 11 weeks straight in the all-important 18-49 demographic.
